Zombies On Fire & Other Short Stories

Raining Fire

Jenkins slowed his pace when he reached the flames licking up from the floor. Even through the thick protection of his gear, the heat was almost unbearable. He held up his hand for the rest of the team to slow down.

"You're up, Blakely," he whispered into the mic.

Another figure stepped up beside him. He couldn't see her beautiful face through the mask, but he could sense the violent chemist's determination to capture Garfield Cook in each quick sure movement. Dead or alive. This was it. The closest they had ever come. They almost had him this time.

He checked the safety on his gun and scanned the room for any sign of his nemesis. His red laser cut through the smoke and flames while he covered Blakely so she could do her thing and put out the flames.

She had been preparing for this confrontation for years. Ever since the mad, fire monger had assassinated her family back in Tulsa. It had been easy to convince her to join them in their hunt for Cook.

They had been chasing him for the past two years unsuccessfully. Frustrated as their rival always seemed to stay two steps ahead of them. But not today. They had him. And soon, they would unmask him and put an end to his charade.

Blakely finished her preparations and tossed her weapons into the flames. She called them flame suppressors. It was something she had invented to put out the violent fires that Cook started.

They had almost caught him two other times. The flame suppressors had saved their lives both times. This time they had been more prepared and were farther along than ever. This could be it. Third times a charm, Jenkins thought to himself.

"Turn on your oxygen, boys. Flames are gone in three, two, one." Blakely crooned into their earpieces.

Jenkins felt more than heard a low thump deep in his bones when the flame suppressors went off. Sucking up the air in the room, the fire died down almost immediately.

Some of the hotter sections caught fire again as oxygen seeped back into the room. Flames licked up once again around them, but it wasn't even one-tenth as hot it had been just a few seconds previously.

Jenkins could see the outlines of his other team members pressing in around him from the light of the flames that were rising once again. There was a crash to their right that made them all jump. Jenkins spun around. His red laser beam cutting through the smoke. But it was merely one of the overhead walkways that twisted and bent in the extreme heat and had fallen.

He turned back and continued to press through the flames. He could see several of his soldiers surrounding someone. As he came closer and his eyes adjusted to the darkness and flickering flames, Jenkins realized it was a couple.

He couldn't see the man's face because he wore a mask as they did, but the woman did not.

"Garfield Cook! You're surrounded. Let the woman go and come peacefully with us."

The man and woman looked at each other for a long moment. Then the woman stretched out her hand toward them. Her hand burst into flame and grew brighter.

"Stand down, woman," Jenkins yelled over the comm and held up his hand for his men not to shoot.

"Blakely, prepare to suppress the flames. Cole, can you contain her?"

"Working on it, sir," Cole replied.

Jenkins didn't know where Cole had come from, but he definitely wasn't normal at all. His file was classified, and Jenkins hadn't been allowed to access it. All he had been told was that Cole could suppress most mutant abilities.

The woman's eyes blazed, and she screamed as she held out her hand in their direction. But the flame on her hand didn't increase in size or heat as she seemed to expect. Slowly, it diminished and flickered out. She screamed in anger and fury once again.