Hillman Compound
[COLOR=Red]Located in the industrial district, along the waterfront were 2 miles of nothing but warehouses. Some of the larger warehouses were fifty thousand square feet of storage and some were filled to capacity. On the south end, standing pristine and new, was Hillman compound, known formerly as Hillman, Inc. This is where the multi-millionaire stored his luxury items, docked his yachts and kept his precious things hidden away.
The warehouse itself was made of concrete and boasted security guards around its surrounding electrical fence. No one could come within 500 feet of Hillman, Inc without being thoroughly accosted by a gruff looking security guard with bad breath.
State of the art security and fifty cameras surveyed the premises. There were four check points and one main entrance. The surrounding warehouses have been bought and cleared out by Hillman, Inc and not a soul interrupted whatever went on down on the south end of the docks.[/COLOR]
'That what? Wait, WHAT? What do you mean minefield? What do you mean shoot me in the face??' Kyle scrambled down the last bit of the hallway and saw the elevator in sight. He almost stopped at the mention of a minefield but forced himself to the doors and dipped his fingers into the center, parting them with a loud grunt.
'I'm Kyle Evans, I'm a...fuck...I'm a reporter for the Time. Carol knows who I am...Carol tell them!' He put his back against one side of the door and pushed with his right leg, forcing the doors open. With a clank they stopped with a big enough opening to squeeze through. He reached for the ladder and jumped, the doors closing behind him.
'I'm wearing a black turtle neck, I have black hair. I'm unarmed.' He climbed the rest of the way to the ground level and pulled on the crank to manually open the doors. The building rocked again and he felt his balance shift. The building was tipping, he could feel it. Christ, he thought and opened the doors.
The ground level was still intact and he ran down the hallway, pushing through doors so hard that they banged against the walls loudly. He recognized the hallway out through the smoke, his lungs now on fire.
'Which way is safe?'
The wall pulled away and part of the metal skeleton of the foundation peeked through, she reached for it on the way into the pit but missed. The pain in her chest became secondary as she felt the heat rise up and hiss across her skin. Frantically she reached out and suddenly was caught by something. Looking up she saw Simon who had managed to catch the metal beams.
He was saving her. Good, she thought, because he's fucking dead when I'm out of here.
Ellis tried to climb up Simon's arm, trying to get a grasp but couldn't. He watched her as the compound literally tilted inward, the heat burning his face as he looked down at her. Past her could only be described as hell. The burning inferno's flames licking up at them.
He felt his grip loosen on the beam. The sweat and pain from the fire burning his skin. Simon looked at her. His life was always with her. He loved her, despite enslaving his family and alienating the clan from their nation. Simon felt the pain in his heart as he looked her in the eyes and he spoke quietly to her. He mouthed the words, 'I loved you.'
Then he let her go.
Simon wasn't gone, she could still feel him. At least, she assumed her bond with him would've been strong enough to tell if he was. He hadn't told her what he was going to do, if anything. She didn't think it was her place to ask. The pit of her stomach felt like a knot wrapped around a brick.
She waited, her eyes searching the outside parameter of the compound. It would be alright and Simon would make it out, she kept telling herself but it didn't stop the tears welling up in her eyes.
They looked at each other, the seconds ticking by like years. He was trying to make a decision, she could see it in his eyes. Fifteen hundred years with her, he better make the right one, she thought. She tried her hardest to smile up at him, to reassure him but he was taking forever, just staring at her. Suddenly he opened his mouth.
'I loved you', he said.
Her eyes went large and the hate bubbled over. She reached up to claw at him, to crawl up his body and rip his eyes out when he let go.
As Ellis fell into the bowels of the building she did a curious thing. She prayed. Prayed that she wouldn't live through this and find Simon, because there would be nothing in the world that would ever stop her from hunting him and every single thing dear to him. She'd kill the clan if she had to, but his suffering would be legendary.
Her thought was cut off as she fell onto a steel beam, breaking her spine. The pain mixed in with the insurmountable hate and she continued to pray as the building crumbled on top of her.
Carol.
He pulled himself up and onto the tilted floor. He scrambled along the wall and made it into the hallway. He stumbled, the temperature now would be unbearable for a human and for a vampire...well it wasn't the sun but it was damn near. He stood and ran as fast as he could down the hallway to the other elevator shaft.
Simon pushed his vampire speed and made it to the elevator doors as the building continued to be rocked by explosions, some from above. Pushing open the doors he reached out and grabbed the ladder and started to climb. Suddenly the second level elevator blew out and down, just grazing him and leaving a gash on his back. He felt his blood lust start to rage from the pain, his fangs tingly wildly, but to no avail.
Fire streamed out of the second floor and into the shaft. The fire from below and reached the bottom floors on this side of the compound. He was surrounded by flames. Simon closed his eyes and tried to breathe, but the heat in the air seared his lungs.
He had a final thought before being engulfed by the flames. He had done the right thing, he told himself. Dying now was only fitting for the things he had done for Ellis over the years. He'd be at peace with that.
Simon hung on the ladder in his makeshift tomb, waiting.
No doubt the sleeping Nachton would notice that the ware house docks were on fire and soon the police and fire department will be rushing to extinquish it and clear the area. Within 15 minutes the area will be crowded with government personnel, fighting the fire.
There was no way anyone survived that...and nothing Mathias could do now.
Wearily,as if the weight of his thousand years suddenly weighed upon him, Mathias dialed Shay's number. Each ring seemed like an eternity and again and again he went over what occurred.
"Shay? It's me - it's over...yes,yes I am fine love. I need to take a cab to this address and drive my car back to the house. The keys will be under the driver's side mat. I will be waiting in back - I love you Shay, see you in a few "
He had not wanted to be so abrupt with Shay, but time was of the essence and Mathias was still trying to understand what happened, much less discuss it.
Mathias pulled the heavy kevlar tarp over him and waited on Shay. But every time he closed his eyes all he could picture was Simon and Ellis in that inferno.
"Damn it to hell..."
"Carol, I'm out will rendesvous at The Domicile"
(( OOC - Mathias out. Thanks all for a great thread, I had a...blast? ops: ))
Carol - can we get him a pickup? We're a little loaded down in here.
She took a deep breath and pressed the red glowing light. It beeped at her and she pressed it again. Under her breath she counted to three and the first explosions began adding to the fire and confusion. By the time she reaced thirty, the bomb Valentine had placed around the outside of the foundation had begun to go. They went up in the order she had planted them.
The remains of the warehouse swayed omniously before collapsing on itself and adding to the inferno. She made the screen on over the driver's window tranparent and started the van.
"Carol we're hauling ass. See you at the Domicile."
'Oh good lord, this whole thing is me fault, I shouldn't have given Simon one of the bombs, and I should have known about the room of explosives, and how the building would react to such a blaze, that was my fucking job.' Now because of her her Ellis and Simon were dead, and there was a human witness. 'Fuck.'
As she drove from the firey grave of the one person she feared the most and the one person she respected the most, she realized she had no idea where she was going.
So this was death, he thought.
He felt weightless, floating up higher and higher towards a bright light. He was almost amused that there actually was a long tunnel with a light at the end. Only this light hurt. A lot. His body felt on fire, his skin peeling away and the light burning into his eyes. No, this couldn't be death. This felt worse. The intense light and pain made him cover his eyes. His body begin to ache and burn. No, this wasn't death. It was hell.
Suddenly his upward arch slowed and began to pull at him, no doubt sending him straight to hell. He could feel his blood boiling and with nothing left, he decided to face his worse fears. He'd look hell in the face as he raced towards it, burning out like a light shining too bright for too long. Simon opened his eyes and welcomed his hell...just in time to see the ground when he hit it.
Well, crap. I didn't lay them out, so doing this from memory. Don't fuck up the math and don't step on anything that looks like it is bad for you. Straight out the front door 8 feet is safe, then you hit the array. Nonstandard. Straight out 6 feet...that's 14 total feet from doorway, diagonal 30 degrees right, forward fifteen feet, diagonal 55 degrees left, forward 7 feet, diagonal 30 degrees left, forward 12 feet, diagonal 80 degrees right, forward 16 feet, sidestep three feet right, forward 40 feet, turn 30 degrees left, you'll be home free.
Kyle stood for a moment, his mouth agape. He swore if and when he ever got to meet the guy giving him directions, he's punch him in the mouth. With that thought, the explosions set off around him, one by one. Kyle ran out about fourteen feet and then broke right, an explosion cut him off and he doubled back the other way.
He heard a feminie voice laughing.
'OH NICE, YOU'RE LAUGHING?' Kyle ran, his arms up over his head, zig zagging back and forth out the door and away from the building as it imploded.
The cement and steel crippled and fell in, trapping whatever was left inside. She watched, quietly. The tears began again, running down her face. They were gone. Not just Ellis but Simon. No sign of him.
'Can anyone report seeing Simon make it out?' Her voice was small and meek, but more importantly, was hopeless.
The building seemingly swallowed itself whole. The hidden sub levels below absorbed the outside building and it fell in. The explosion had been deafening but through the ringing in his ears, he heard crying.
'Carol?' He said out loud.
She had begun crying into her hands, sobbing softly. 'He's gone,' she cried. The explosion had blown out all the monitoring cameras in the area. The force was so great it blew out the electrical grid for a city block. She sat, in the dark. The rest of the clan was retreating out, away from the sun.
'Get out of there, Kyle.' She murmured, looking into her hands. 'There's nothing left now.'
Carol tried to search out for any presence of Simon but all she felt was pain. Either her heart was breaking or she was having a panic attack. Either way, this was pain. Real pain, but not death pain.
'Kyle, do you see anything? Do you see Simon?'
'Get out of there, Kyle. There's nothing left now.' Carol said quietly.
All he knew about Carol was that she was one of their familiars. He had met her, after Marthinus Steyn, the head of Duibne suffered his heart attack and miraculous recovery. They had dinner. Now she was mourning the loss of her vampires. He honestly felt bad for her. Plus he never could stomach listening to a woman cry.
'Kyle, do you see anything? Do you see Simon?'
'Carol...' he started. There was no way anyone lived from that explosion. He stood. In the distance he heard the wail of sirens. 'I left him inside with that Ellis woman.' He paused, 'I doubt anything...' Suddenly something heavy landed behind him.
It was a steel door from an elevator and it just missed him. He stepped back and caught his breath. Looking up, he saw something else coming straight towards him. He dived foward and just missed being hit by Simon and by the sounds of it, he was alive but just barely.
'What the fuck?'
'What the fuck?'
He heard something or someone near him but the light...dear god the sun was so bright. He tried to turn away from it, to start to crawl into the shadows but his body had given up.
While waiting on death, Ginnie had finally set up the explosions within. It caused a massive explosion that caused an incredible surge up the elevator shaft he was in, throwing up level two's elevator door which was on its way down. It blew back up and took Simon with it about five hundred feet into the air, depositing him near the street and Kyle Evans.
He tried to crawl but his muscles betrayed him. So Simon laid there, cooking in the sun.
The sudden screaming from Carol in his ear made him jerk back and almost lose his balance. 'Christ, Carol!'
She stood up and ran out of the room heading towards the stairs out of the abandoned building. All the way screaming for Kyle to save Simon.
The larger pieces of the building had fallen and were still falling around him. Chunks of cement and steel were littering the road as he head down it, looking for a man hole.
The sirens were growing louder, the fire engines horn blaring in the morning horizon.
'Great,' he said to himself. 'I've got Carol screaming in one ear, the police sirens screaming in my other, a burnted up vampire over my shoulder and me without clean underwear.'
Grunting he carried Simon down the street and into an alleyway. He found a man hole and placed Simon near the cover. He reached down and put his fingers in the holes and pulled.
It didn't even budge.
'My god these things do weigh a million pounds.' He tried again, pulling on the manhole and it just wouldn't budge. He looked at Simon, he'd be no help. The vampire was currently turning a nasty shade of pale and his skin was beginning to crack. He let go of the manhole and knelt down in front of it, placing his hands on his thighs.
He felt something in his pocket. Reaching in, his fingers closed around something that made him pale . 'Oh god,' he said sickly. Kyle pulled out the item and looked at it.
The syringe of Eternity from the scientist.
'Fuck.' He said as the sirens got louder.
Kyle looked at Simon, who had saved his life. If it wasn't for him, he'd still be inside that building. Kyle looked at the syringe again. The crimson red liquid rolled around the clear cylinder. He wasn't going to be able to move that manhole unless...he sighed. He clicked the top button of the pen like syringe and the needle came out. He jammed the needle into his thigh and clicked again.
The feeling was much different this time. Not nearly as painful as getting it injected directly into his heart. This time, it was pretty fucking nice. Kyle smiled. He was lost in the euphoria of the drug as it took affect. He looked down at his hands and the scraps and burns slowly faded. He felt great. Then he looked at Simon.
'Oh yeah.'
He reached out and pulled manhole off with one hand. He flipped the cover to the side like a paperweight. 'Come on now, up we go.'
Kyle smiled lazily as he picked up the dying vampire and gently lowered him into the sewers. He grabbed the manhole again and threw his legs into the hole. He climbed down the small ladder and slipped the manhole shut just as the police pulled up.