The Zodiac Assassins

Chapter 12

A flight of stairs appear to our left and we move to go up them. People appear at the top - two guard like people and Gordon Ellis. He doesn't acknowledge me but takes one look at Aries and freaks out, pointing and shouting something at the guards, one of whom gags and starts firing. It takes the other a while to actually start shooting. I duck subconsciously and run forwards. Again, I'm not noted, they're concentrating on Aries who is dodging as much as she can, but every so often, a bullet slits open her top or leggings. I get to the top of the stairs, jump, a kick one of them in the side of the head. He flies into the wall and crumples. The other gasps as though he hadn't seen me at all and turns. Aries appears behind him and slices her knife through the column of skin that forms his neck.

"Well" I say, tipping the one with a head downstairs with the toe of my boot. "They clearly don't care about me."

"Yeah, it's kinda rude don't you think?" Aries says. "Oh well. Lets go."

Gordon was cowering in the office, hiding behind the desk and chair. Aries stood in the doorway for a minute, turned and went back down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" I hissed after her. "He's there."

"I know" she said, turning round. "I just had an amazing idea and I know how to work it. I'll be back in a minute yeah? Just keep him entertained."

"Idiota" I mutter before entering the room and closing the door behind me.

"Who're you?" he asks, clearly getting some bravado back.

"You don't need to know that" I say, not moving. "I am of no relevance to anything."

"You killed the guards didn't you? Well not you but that psychopath who's just vanished"

"Technically" I shrug.

He blinks as though being snapped out of a trance and then holds up a finger. "Now you listen here alright? I want you and your... your... friend out of here, out of my office, my building this instance and I never want to see either of you again, especially not... her."

"She's not my friend" I scoff. "I'd say we've more... close acquaintances. No, we've just both been sent on the same mission, task thing."

"I don't care who she is or why you're both here but just leave right now."

"Oh please" I leap forwards and kick him into the wall. He groans as I lift him up a bit by some of his black hair. "Do you really thing that I give a fuck about what you think? Well I don't, bastardo. I'm not leaving here until we're done with you... and by then, you'll be able to tell me what happens after death."

He whimpers in a pathetic way and holds up a hand to cover his face. I roll my eyes and slam the head back into the wall. Gordon gives a small cry of pain. I put a single hand in my pocket and pull out the syringe, somehow in my belongings. Nothing that comes to mind can explain how the hell it got there but it doesn't matter, I'm here to finish the job and leave him to Aries, who can make sure that no one recognises him after death.

"Dire ciao alla nonna per me" I hiss, stabbing his neck with it and pushing down the plunger. For a disappointing minute, nothing happens, then, he starts to choke up a load of foam and blood that runs down his front and starts to pool at the bottom in a steaming puddle. One of his arms seems to flatten out and go limp but I can't be sure, it's only when the other suddenly starts looking like paper that I realise there's nothing inside him anymore. The door bursts open and Aries charges in, revving a chainsaw. She stares at him for a second and then her eyes light up with a definite psycopathic grin.

"He's actually flattening out isn't he?" she says excitedly, and then looks aghast. "But that means I won't be able to carry out my plan."

"What plan?" I ask worriedly.

She shrugs. "I'll just carry it out now." She revs the chainsaw again and places it on one of the flat arms. It goes through in a second, same with the other, and both legs. She chops each limb into small, flat pieces and then waits a little impatiently before slowly starting on the body. I'm pretty sure he's over dead by now, and I'm certain when she gets to the flat head and messily saws it off the neck. "I think I might keep this." She turns it off and glances at the blade, shining light around the room. "I's pretty, and I have a chainsaw permit so I'll be okay."

"A what?"

"That doesn't matter. The point is..." she carefully puts down the chainsaw and then leaps into the air, throwing her arms about. "We did it, we killed him, we killed him, we killed him. Isn't that great."

Then she throws her arms around me. The second she does so, she suddenly pushes me away, scowling. "You... you didn't see that. No one hears of it, nothing happens, ever. I'm just happy we killed him and all."

I grin and shake my head. "What ever. Lets go."

She nods and runs to the door. "They could be coming here already. When I was coming back up, that guard you knocked out wasn't there anymore. The dead one was though."

"I'd have hoped he was" I say. "If you're about to tell me that the dead are up and walking then I'm not prepared to believe you until you kill someone and we watch them stand back up."

We find Taurus not too far away from where we left him, crumpled up against the wall, sitting in a pool of blood. One of his hands is inside his jacket to the side of his chest, clearly trying to stop blood flow from a bullet wound. His eyes are firmly closed and he looks pale.

"The bastard hit me" he says weakly as we turn up. Slowly, he takes away a hand and shows us the black-red blood covering it. "He shot me. I mean, he's dead now so it's okay but still... he shot me!"

"Never been shot before gun addict?" Aries says, yanking him up. He winces and I let him put an arm round my neck for support.

"Did you do it?" he says. "Did you kill him?"

"Twenty-three flat body pieces, a head and a puddle of blood-red foam at your service sir" Aries says.

We start to near to door outside as it opens and some kind of official walks in. He stares at Taurus, then at us and writes something down on a clipboard.

"Why is he bleeding like that?" he peers down his nose at us. Normally, we're all about the same height, Taurus being a little smaller now with his feet dragging along the floor.

"I'm sorry" I peer up at him. "He's been ill and he shouldn't have come in today but decided to. He blacked out and fell down the stairs. We're just helping him outside where his wife will pick him up."

"You are aware that towels are in that cupboard there" he points to one just near us.

I grin. "Thanks."

He stays, watching me as I walk to the cupboard and reach in. There is a white towel on the bottom row and another stack of them a couple of rows up - too high for me to reach. And in the corner is a carbon dioxide filter.

"Please could you help me" I say taking the bottom one and hiding it from his sight. "I can't reach them."

He sighs irritably, pushes me out of the way and walks into the cupboard. I step back, chuck the filter over my shoulder and slam the door closed, securing it with a length of rope that was playing the role of a belt. I don't really need it I guess, I just got into the habit when I was younger and every pair of jeans' waists were ten times too big for me. Inside, the official shouts and the door buckles but stays.

"He'll be out in a couple of minutes" I pick up the filter and we carry on walking. "Dead I mean."

Taurus chokes out a laugh. "My wife will come and pick me up? Where'd you get that idea from?"

I shrug and shoulder the door open. The cupboard behind isn't leaning out so much anymore, as though the official is already starting to find things blurry. Good. The quicker the better.