Page 35Pierced

Getting used to looking through infra-red goggles was quite the interesting journey. The intensity setting was very useful to really look through walls, but was useless to see sharp shapes. Humans were often no more than blobs beyond a certain distance and, when trying to look through the walls, even less than that. A few people together would form a single shapeless object that emitted heat.

Close by it was a different matter though. The goggles had no zoom capabilities (understandable with the size of them), which made it very difficult to actually see people up close. But when I did, it was very interesting. Clothing and skin had very different temperatures, and it was a little like seeing them naked if you could look through them. Not that you could see any detail on the body itself, but if clothing was wider than the person, it was at least visible.

Looking through it made me hungry though. I knew that the blood running through them transported the heat and fuel everywhere. It was like seeing their heart beat. Not literally, but for my senses. My nose and ears went insane with detail, where I could often hear a single heartbeat of someone down below. And smell them perfectly, filtering out all other smells.

I was glad to have already fed.

Practicing jumps was a little different with the goggles on. Though they had two lenses (as opposed to one) and offered a somewhat three dimensional view of my surroundings, it was still off. I tried to remember from my physics classes why that was. We'd spend an afternoon looking at how eyes view the world and I remembered how eyes would swivel to judge distance. Minute movements that were all registered in your brain and translated. I was becoming very aware that a small screen in front of your eyes with cameras in front of them did offer decent vision, it was by no means perfect.

But, easy enough to get used to.

I'd left the suitcase behind on the roof I had been spying from. It would only hinder my jumps and I was fairly sure no one would go up there at this time of the night. Of course I didn't venture very far away from it and returned fairly soon afterwards. I almost decided this was enough when I heard a muffled sound from not too far away. My senses were still going wild, so I thought I might have imagined it, but tried to find out where it was from. With my goggles still on.

There were blobs on the second floor, a lot of them. With one standing with her back against the window. She said something like stop it, at least it sounded agitated at this distance. It was a students home with a stairway leading to the second floor apartment directly. I took the goggles off my head, finally, and put them back in the backpack. I wasn't a hero, but knowing something was going on made it very hard for me to ignore. I rushed over to their front door, briefcase in hand, and rang the bell.

It was past three am by this point, they didn't respond to the bell.

I rang again.

It surprised me when one of the guys just opened the door, scowling with a "Yeah, what?"

I hadn't expected them to open the door. "I heard my friend was here, I was coming to pick her up."

The guy looked at me, judging me and frowning at my briefcase, but just shrugged. "Yeah, sure, come in."

When I got into the living-room, they'd already torn the jacket she was wearing and the guy who'd let me in, grabbed me from behind. "Look guys, we're lucky. It's two-for-one tonight!"

Five of them, including the one behind me, and the girl was absolutely terrified. There was no time for explanations now. I turned quickly and smashed the brief-case into the guy's face. While he fell over, I dashed to the guy closest to the girl and punched him unconscious. It was then I heard a shot.

A most unusual experience.

The flesh on my lower arm burned suddenly, as if someone held a cigar to it, and felt pressured somehow. Then there was a sensation as if a poke was being pushed through my skin and muscles, coming out at the other side. Then a weird feeling of emptiness where the hole was left. Then the pain. An intense shot of pain that was caused by all those severed nerves.

It was just a flesh wound, mostly. On the outside of my left lower arm, a small hole caused by a bullet travelling through. I almost fell over from the shock and the pain, but my feral instincts just took over. I barely remember anything of what happened next. Everything was like pictures taken rather than a full movie. Barely any sound, barely any smells. Just the blood, the pain and the actions.

With my other hand, flexing my fingers, I raked the face open of the guy that had shot me using my nails. I didn't even recall walking toward him. Then the guy on the other side of the girl was smacked against the side wall, with a little help from my fists. One tried to escape, his back towards me when I kicked in his knees from behind. The girl hadn't seen anything, her head covered with her arms when she heard the gunshot. There was a hole in the wall. I had to leave here. Someone must have called the police by now.

My arm was bleeding, moving hurt like hell. I knew it would heal, eventually, but that didn't make me any less worried. My clothes were still free of blood, I had to keep my arm away from me so that I wouldn't spoil them. It was a stupid thought, but it helped me stay focused on the moment. I picked up the girl and the briefcase on my way out of the room. She was crying, sobbing uncontrollably, even when I got her downstairs. There was little I could do for her.

"Wait for the police here."

I'm sure they'd be here soon, but I was not about to give a statement or, worse yet, end up in the hospital. I had to persevere. Walking was agony, every step a taunt that I wouldn't be able to keep this up. Even though the wound was in my arm, every step was like a hammer-blow on my body. It echoed all the way up to my arm and caused another ripple of pain going through my body.

Blood...

The bleeding was stopping, but I'd lost quite a bit of it. Ideally I'd take some more before I went to sleep. And I would have to wash my hand somewhere. Walking into the Cathedral with my hand and arm partly covered in blood was probably not a good idea. Blood had this annoying tendency to look unique. No one would believe it was 'just some red paint'.

I don't remember everything perfectly, but I found someone walking on the streets that was easy enough to drink. I didn't take that much, the blood tasted foul, but it already made me feel better. As for cleaning up...

The ocean provided.

If you've ever cleaned a wound with salt water and remember how much that hurts, imagine a gunshot wound filled with salt water. I hurt my lip biting on it to avoid screaming out. But, looking in hindsight, it was luck that it wasn't low tide. The water was fairly high and the docks made it easy enough to clean my arm without having to take a dip. But it hurt... It hurt so much.

I was afraid it would still show tomorrow and, guessing that Tyler would probably recognize a gunshot wound, would be asked questions I had no easy answers for. So, tired, beat, worried and feeling perforated, I made my way back to the Cathedral, sneaked in as best I could and went back to my room. It was now officially 'my room' for the time being. Josh let me have it for as long as I wanted.

But I hope no one had seen me come in. The amount of gossip my predicament would cause was probably enough to be forced to leave.

I'm scribbling here furiously doing the best I can to describe the last events of the night. My arm still hurt too much, but I was at least lucky enough to have my right hand unhurt. So I could still write. It was good to write, actually. It finally brought some peace in my head before I went to sleep. It was probably another half hour to daylight now, but I was too tired to do anything else.

After making sure the door was closed, I went to sleep.

Ah, that explains the peculiar lack of legibility in these past few pages.