Asylum

The back doors of a semi-truck's trailer swing open, the patient with Nails (XO) looking inside, the cat-thing sitting on top of the patient's head.

Nails - "Jesus.  What do you want for it ?"

They give him a look.

She follows the cat down the street, the passersby ignoring with everyone's head down, traffic alongside stopping for a red at the crosswalk.  With a sudden ring of its bell it leaps for the roof of a car as the light turns green.

Shocked and annoy, she watches it tear off fast and runs for the pickup ahead with a side rollover into the back. 

As the driver's gaze meanders to the side, she peeks over the top and spots the cat-thing ahead sitting calmly as the terrible driver beneath sways through the traffic as though needing to get somewhere unlike everyone else.

The truck to speed with the rest of the freeway traffic, she pulls herself to the roof, swerving the driver in response with a slight tail ward swing to boost her onto the next car's roof.

The driver looks up as the sickle pierces the dent her landing made, then back as he almost hits the car in front of him to which she leaps that short distance.  One to the next, flashes of the driver in the nightclub, watching, leering as she dances.

Until his roof caves in, an arm turns the wheel suddenly to swerve.  As it flips she leaps with the cat thing at her side to the trucks top ahead, landing with a low crouch.  A driver who thought he saw her look along its edge sees nothing.

She stalks low for the cab with the cat thing, the scene painting out with a black spray.  The truck pulls away from Nails' garage painted perfectly matte black.

She smiles at the cat circling on the passenger seat before down to sleep, blows the horn twice like a toy, then notices the girly pic on the wall behind the cat and tosses it out the window.
________

As the Canon Club burns with no fire department coming ~

Kid in the back - "I did sneak in.  I climbed the high tower when the owners were in their tunnels, they have habits.  Rode the elevator down and when it opened I played a broken girl.  The security seemed unsurprised."

Teacher - "Jesus."

Kid - "Hm."

Teacher - "What did you do ?"

Kid - "Drank.  Danced.  Asked people questions.  Got answers."

Teacher - "Alright you.  We swap desks for the day.  Tell us everything."  He walks to her desk and motions to his, she realizes he's not kidding.  He works his way into her desk and notices the carvings ... a look.

Kid - Drawing the floor plan on the chalkboard, "Okay, the people come in here.  The main floor used to be the main church, stage was the pulpit, the back room where the preacher slept."  She looks back at the two girls, "Now it's where they perform the sacrifices."

The teacher's hand goes up.

Kid - "What is it rapscallion."

Teacher - "Did you see the sacrifices ?"

Kid - "I saw one."

The two up front stare ...

One - "What ... what did they do ?"

Two - "Was it gruesome ?"

Kid - "Very."  She goes on drawing the map, "The elevator they installed but behind it, are stairs that go down."

One - "Did you go ?"

Kid - "I peeked.  But I got a bad vibe."

They snicker.

Teacher - "What did you see ?"

Kid - "Hell.  It looked like Hell."

...

Teacher's hand goes up ~

Kid - "The whelp in the back.  You have a question ?"

Teacher - "Yes Ms Ingrate.  Was it like a Christian Hell or a ... "

Kid - "Buddhist."

Teacher - "Damn."

One - "Are ... are you okay ?"

Kid - A smile with a tear, "Not really."

Teacher - "Alright.  Let's swap back."

Kid - "okay"

The beast walks the asylum wreckage at night, the book under arm.  He pokes around for the spot and punches through a leftover floor, crashing down into a room below.

Around at the darkness preserved, he spits a flame to a torch on the wall.  The flame sucked their oxygen out, contorting them in their sins, last gasps for air frozen in time, clutching whatever their prize.

He really can't help but appreciate the artistry.  In back a vault door framed by the hopeless attempting to open in time, hands still clutching its wheel.  The grasp of his claws around it's spines, the body pulls up a bit as it turns before it falls over, loosing its grip to the floor.

He pulls it open hard as the patient's truck blasts down the road, apparently chasing a small car, flashes of dancing in the club, this driver among the worst.  She pulls alongside ... a bump.

The car spins into flips through the traffic, a body slumps out.  The truck turns out its lights and takes a side road.  Past the vault door the beast walks a long tunnel into darkness, he closes the book.

Overground a distance ahead, the town's hospital while in the night the asylum inmates show their fangs.  They leave the asylum's overground facade, stalking the townsfolk here and there and into the alleyways.

But there's a thing about the way they move.  These were not made to kill loudly but quietly.  They share the beast's fangs but not his disposition.  One to the next and clearing a path, a leader holds up a hand and waits as the traffic rolls by then motions the rest on.

They clear a path.

Yet still as they move like quiet beasts scavenging, some leaping over from one wall to the next across the street.  One lands and looks down to the manhole in the street, beneath which the beast walks.

The patient pulls her truck into the warehouse district where the homeless camp, apparently known and welcome waved to as she parks.  She turns for the cab's back bed, the cat-thing already stepping to.

Puts on the nightlight and opens the small fridge.  Cycling through the trucker's remaining meals from the freezer over the beer, she takes the Salisbury steak.  Pops it into the microwave, takes a beer.

She looks at the trucker hat ... puts it on.  Drinks, the bell dings like the cat's.  Song over to they asylum facade burning to black with a wisp of the flame.

~ five

In the hospital nearing dawn, the patients pour in, the patient drives the roads with flashes of another man watching her dance in the club.

View through the hospital halls, through to the back where children are being selected in the maternity ward.  Further still where they're plugged into tubes exchanging their blood, being replaced in the ward.

~ The patient drives, the man walks down the street loud on his phone mic, yelling like a madman with no phone in hand (you know the guy).

On the gurneys in the main the doctors strap down convulsing new arrivals, their throats torn out as one with a broken limb hanging suddenly snaps it back into place.

~ The calls to police busy the board.

As the clanging on the basement's vault door echoes, all falls silent, these new patient eyes becoming clear.  A bang again, they pull at their bonds shrieking.  Gurneys fall over as they twitch out of their bonds.  The crashing of the vault door's opening.

The beast looks into the basement nursery, those clear eyes of these baby's stare back in understanding.  He crushes the machine and they begin to crawl, asylum inmates reaching the main doors.

~ The men steps out to cross the street, the truck drives through and he's gone.

The police arrive to join the bloodbath, he turns back walking through the dark tunnels, closing the book again.  Overland the third spot of the diagram's inner triangle ahead, the city prison, the police all going the wrong way from it as he walks beneath their wailing cars.

~ The patient drives intently, the cat licking it's paw in the seat next to her, the man in the road still twitching, trying to turn his head to the fore but unable to scream.

Later at night in the truck's bed behind the seats she sits cross legged, cat-thing asleep while she cuts the man from the picture, the driver taken already removed.

~ In the day chasing down another driver fleeing mad.

Another getting cut from the picture, the car flips through the traffic guided by the truck's mad fender still carrying leftovers.  Two more left in the Polaroid on either side of her as she dances over them dancing on the stage. 

She tapes the sides shut (they were layered) and hangs it from a clip on the visor while the police are clearly busy with the turning populous.
________________

A politician's eyebrow raises at footage of the beast, his army behind him.

Politician - "How many did we get ?"

Old Geneva - "Already shipped out, around forty soldiers who can comprehend an order.  Seven or eight who can truly exceed the human experience, a couple of potentially useful anomalies."

Politician - Staring into the footage at the militarized mob, "And these ?"

Old Geneva - "Unrecoverable.  The bulk of them.  Completely insane."

Politician - An uncomfortable laugh at the carnage's excessiveness, "Well.  Time to close the experiment then, don't you think ?  It's all been very expensive ...  "  Peering closer incredulously, " ... historically speaking.  Shame we couldn't get more ... "

Old Geneva - "Understood.  And agreed."

Politician - Another shocked short laugh at the footage, "On which part ?"  Smiles up and he's gone from the office.  "Creepy old ..."  A clip from a street cam of the guy suddenly getting hit by the truck.  Jolted, "Fuck !"

Puts down the pad and looks around the empty room like an audience of ghosts, he takes a drink.  "Hooo ... holy shit."
____

And on the streets the military presences is immediately noticeable.  Made to look like a National Guard reserve to the normal eye, but those who know will see the lack of specified markings, and know they have seen such people before. 

The moving mob still claws its way for the prison, the beast clawing his way out with more released.  The police in both cases put up their useless fights.

The reservists hold back, seeming more more interested in layered containment while charges are set on the bridge.

Soldier in charge at the bridge - (known to us as Capricorn's merc commander) "Does anyone expect those men on the other side to survive ?"

Geneva - "If they can exterminate the problem.  If not God help them.  We blow the bridge."

...

Soldier - (more of a mercenary really), "Bullshit.  You old spooks want to see how they do."

Geneva - "And you ?"  He hands him a pad.

Soldier - A laugh in despise, he takes it.  Working it, "So this is the new way is it.  We're all about to be outdated."

Geneva - "New way ?  Not at all.  This was how we won the revolution."

Soldier - "But you can't control them."

Geneva - "Attempting to was the new way.  That is the experiment which failed.  In the past they didn't bother trying."  With a despise of his own, "Front line fodder, from the days when armies still marched in lines."

Soldier - "Huh.  So do they know ?  The 'successes'.  Do they know what they are ?"

Geneva - Smiles turning away, "Do you ?"  Back turned walking, "If they cannot be contained, you can count those men dead or worse.  Some have the ability to turn others."

Soldier - A slow building laughter, "You are madmen !  Absolute madmen."  Turns with a smile and raises his binoculars to overlook the explosives set, "It will be done."

~ six

~ The patient cuts out the last two from the picture, leaving only her dancing.  She smiles and hangs it up while the cat thing stretches and back to sleep.

Elder - On a literal land line, "Yes.  I understand."  She sets down the phone with a sigh ... looks out the city facing window at the rising smoke.
____

Teacher - "I ... only know what the news tells me."

Student one - "They don't let us watch that."

Teacher - "Oh !  I ... "

Student Two - "You literally are the news.  This town has never one time been mentioned online."

One - "Ever."

Teacher - "Wow.  Okay.  Well the news says there a lot of riots with escaped prisoners, and the National Guard is here for that.  All downtown in the city circle."

Kid in the back - "And the beast ?"

Teacher - "Beast ?"

The kid kicks a cellphone across the floor between the desks, stopped by the teacher's foot.

Teacher - Picking it up, "You know, we used to throw paper airplanes."  Looking at it he gets hit in the head by one.  Ignoring, he looks at the screen.  "Jesus."  Three heavy knocks at the door.

He opens to the elder nun, who motions him out to the hall and closes the door behind him.

Elder - "We need to leave.  Now."  A sigh ... "And now we finally can."

Teacher - "You mean the riots ?"

Elder - "No ... I mean the circle.  It has been broken.  We can leave now."

Teacher - "What are you saying !?"

Elder - A compassionate hand to his cheek, "Oh ... Dr Astorius."  And endearing smile, "You really don't know."  She smacks him lightly but poignantly, "But we really must go all the same."

He hears a sound at the door, opens it to the children piled listening.

Quiet student - "We have buses.  For field trips.  It's ... been a while ... "

Elder - "Well we're going on one now.  All of us."

The whole school gathers to a lot of stout nuns at the motor pool with wrenches and tools, hoods open on half the buses.  One slams shut.  The cat thing looks up wide eyed and jumps out the truck's window.

The prison faced explodes wide open, the beast at the front followed by a slew of transformed convicts, moving like a militarized mob of monsters, showing their teeth as they leap into the police line, while those of the hospital and asylum attack from behind.

I guess sometimes they do still make a line.

The minds struck alone by his very appearance, just strolling through destruction as though to survey it, no fear of it or any of its victims around.  Let alone what it means.

As one horrible thing leads to another.

Lightning strikes here, a car swerves there and into another as the hail crashes their windshields and hurries the masses.  The traffic here now halted, and as with all hail which hits hard and fast it passes quickly.

Freed inmates spread from behind him, circling out to pick off the weak from alleyway to alleyway, ignoring civilians if not enjoying their flee, 'plenty to go around til tomorrow old chum'.

One car strikes another, a delivery truck swerves to hard, skidding it into the police line it seems this beast needn't do a thing, his pack enjoys the profits.

Now reaching the front line, he starts to fight, the patients flood.  He throws a car aside to swipe at those hiding behind while piercing a wing through others behind another, pulling it out hard as a blade.

 

Crushes a skull, then punches through another sending it's shards to the face of the next, dropping the first and looking ahead to the gathering arms against him in their terror to face.

Their wide and dumbfound eyes watching as he rises in flight before taken by that distraction from the side.  It's a form of vampire born of this, these soldiers bred to win history's wars.

And like his own serpentine teeth and those of Eresh, they fold out as a venomous snake's, here a poison sack filling to pressurize the bones' mechanisms.  Be know to the biologist that this disease is viral, but the poison which carries it bacterial.

 

He works a shoulder.  Cracks the neck, he may feel a bit old.  Roars to the skies with a final strike across the field, these patient feeders taking it like an ecstasy as it flays their flesh before regrowth, whatever old wrinkles they just once had now begone.

While among other are worn medals of historical warfare.

He stops.

Beast - Looks around in a moment as the world gives pause as he stretches his wings out full, roaring "! MIDWICH !"  He breaths the calm in with smoke from this grinning mouth exhaled in return, "Run."

Children's feet marching up schoolbus steps, soldiers preparing the line.  A wire unspools from the bridge charges to the control, more feet march up the steps.

At 0:42 the merc commander spots the distantly raised dust from the schoolbus caravan, being joined by more of the city populous.  He lowers the binoculars.

...

Commander - "You heard the man.  Nothing gets through."

~ Three bombers take off from the base.

More soldiers join the two tanks at bridge end in turning their guns on the incoming, demolitionist heading to switch.  The soldiers open fire, children scream ducking.

At 1:00 the patient's semi swerves through the caravan, still decorated with bits of bad men and blowing the horn.  Behind her the inmates leap car to car as she had done, she follows the cat-thing madly as it bounds through.

One of the men on the grill may still be alive ... hard to say as it bobs its head with the veering.

At 1:20 as the switch is about to be flipped, the beast lands on the demolitionist, crushing him.  Tears the wire out and pulls it hard, a demolition pack on its end meeting a tank with a blast of his own fire on contact.

A wing through the line, he jumps for the tank like it were a competitive beast, an elbow drop to its cannon over the knee snapping it.  He flips it over then swings for the next tank while all the soldiers are now on him.

A child peers over the seat through the windshield, past the swerving truck, watching the beast struggle flipping the second tank from their path, merc soldiers forget their approach with this distraction of a giant smashing their toys.

~ When the bombers drop the load over city center, all the soldiers inside looking up with the rest in that moment of peace.

The semi plows them through, the beast watches with a smile as she's followed by the rest, the explosion rips through the city, that ball of fire fast approaching.

The mercenaries crushed (their commander apparently absent like the teacher and back of the class kid from all this).  The beast watches the semi drive away proudly, joined by the rest of the released, roaring in defiance at the oncoming blast before the blinding flash.

Song over as they all drive on, she looks at the passenger seat, the cat-thing there sleeping.

Patient - "Cat."  Smiles proud of herself and blows the horn twice.

(credits)

Note if this version isn't available in your county, this is the really stupid video which is the only legit version of the song available on the tube.  Like real bad.  So bad it makes the song sound bad.

Common malady.

Musically, the only difference is that it begins with a woman saying "Yeah."  In a way appropriate to answer the patient's last (and only) word.  Then the beat like the common version.

Also it's a scratchy old record.

~ dumb video ~

After the credits, the teacher cooks in a suburban looking kitchen when the front door crashes open.  The kid from the back of the class runs up the stairs, "Hi Dad !"

He watches after and shakes his head ...

She flops on the bed and pulls out the book reading, ""When all is said and done, all tales be told and every battle lost and won, all fallen to their own vain-glories with eternity lost, all that will ever be, will only be, her own imagination."

~ The End ~