Saturday's Short Story - NAIA Pt. 3

Hello my dear friends, Dillfinger is back with part 3 of NAIA! I apologize for the late release today, I was caught in the writing vortex and my cat Mr. Foozy needed to have a bath. I hope you enjoy the next part of our story.

She sat on the back of the ambulance, wrapped in a blanket, as the police questioned her. She could not hold back tears when she explained how the freak attacked Martin.

“Officer, the mutant is still out there,” she exclaimed, “we need to find it.” Natalie dried her tears with end of her sleeve. The officers told her that they would find the mutant and that they would notify her as soon as they had caught it. Natalie objected.

“I’m coming with you. I know this beast better than anyone. I helped create it.” The officers looked at each other before excusing themselves to talk to the chief. After a few minutes, they returned and confirmed that she could come with them, but on one condition. She had to obey the officer’s every word. Natalie agreed and got into the back of a police car. The snow was still falling heavily, they had to move quickly in order to still see the mutant’s tracks. They followed the tracks down the main road for some time, there was not a single soul in sight. The car jerked to a stop.

“The tracks are gone!” shouted the angry officer driving, “We are back to square one,” Natalie dug deep into her thoughts for a moment before an idea popped into her head,

“No, we aren’t.” she stated, “This mutant is part chimpanzee, it will have a natural instinct to climb. I think I know where it is.” They stopped outside a 15-storey building. The team quickly devised a plan before they entered. They informed the owners of the building about the situation and waited in the lobby for backup to arrive. Seven more policemen arrived all armed with tranquilizers. Everyone got into the elevator, Natalie had never been surrounded by so many police. They traveled to the top floor where they then climbed a flight of stairs to get to the roof. Before opening the door that led out to where the mutant was, the officer in charge turned to Natalie.

“Ma’am, I don’t know if I can let you out onto the roof,” he stated sternly, “It’s not safe and you don’t have any protection,” Natalie stared at him in disbelief. She was astonished that they would not let her go out and face the very freak of nature that she created. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the amount of stress she was under, the anxiety she was having due to the horrific sights she saw during the day, or if she was just going crazy but a switch in her brain was flipped. She tried to push past the officer and open the door, but she was detained by two other officers. Each held one of her arms as she tried break free. Tears streamed down her face, she cried for them to let her go. To let her fight the beast. The officers were running out of time, they needed to get out there. One of the officers held Natalie back while the others stormed out the door. When the officer released her, she was breathing heavily with tears still streaming down her face. She ran to the door, she managed to open it a crack and get a glimpse of the mutant bounding towards the other side of the roof before the officer pulled her away and slammed the door shut. Natalie banged her fist on the wall, crying hysterically and demanding the officer let her out. The officer looked at her, he put his hands on her shoulders.

“Ma’am, look into my eyes,” he said, calmly, “take a deep breath. Try to relax.” Natalie did as she was told, but the tears did not subside. The officer knelt beside her, helping to calm her down. They could hear the other officers struggling outside. It was apparent that they had called for backup when five more officers came running up the stairs and burst through the door onto the roof. After what felt like an eternity, the door opened and a group of ten officers filed in through the door. The officer who had stayed with Natalie looked around, a grim expression on his face.

“John?” he asked, desperately. The officers shook their heads. Their fellow officer had been a casualty to the beast that had slain Martin and injured her boss. The officers explained that they had only tranquilized the beast because NAIA had not given them permission to kill it. Natalie didn’t understand this. The mutant was killing and injuring people, it deserved to die. The officers allowed Natalie to go out onto the roof to look at the mutant. She burst out the door, a blinding light causing her to wait for her eyes to adjust. She glanced around, there was nothing on the roof but the body of poor John. The officers flooded out onto the roof, shouting and cursing. The mutant had disappeared, but how? It had been tranquilized; how could it have disappeared?

“Guys, guys! GUYS!” shouted Natalie, drawing the attention of all the officers, “What was the dosage of the tranquilizer?” she asked.

“Um, it was a horse tranquilizer. That was all we were able to get hold of.” Replied one of the officers.

“No, no, no, no!” she cried, “In order to knock that freak out you would need something much stronger. A horse tranquilizer will slow it down at most.” Natalie grew dizzy. She started stumbling towards the door. The officers must have noticed that she was not well because one of them caught her before she hit the ground. Luckily, she did not fully pass out and was able to walk again after a few minutes. As they were in the elevator, Natalie’s phone started to ring. She anxiously withdrew it from her pocket, it was Mary. She quickly answered,

“Mary, is Michael going to be okay? What’s happening?” she frantically asked.

“Well, um…He is in surgery getting his left leg amputated right now,” Mary replied, slowly, “His left arm is broken in three places and was dislocated at the elbow. The gash on his right arm got all stitched up as well. He has a concussion, but the doctors say that if you hadn’t gotten there when you did and tied off the wounds…he would have died,” she explained. Natalie’s heart sank. Her blood boiled; this beast was going to pay for everything. Natalie explained what had happened, leaving out a few parts as not to worry Mary. She hung up, she wiped away the tears that were welling in eyes. When the elevator finally reached the lobby floor, everyone exited and went out to the squad cars. Natalie got into the back of the car driven by the same officer who had stayed with her in the stairwell, who she had learned was named Justin, they drove the police station. When they got there, another car pulled up and two other officers got out. They led her to the chief’s office, the chief was a large man with dark hair and brown eyes. Natalie and the officers explained everything,

“Sir, if you want to knock out the mutant, you’ll need at least a bear tranquilizer, but even that won’t knock it out for long. Our best bet is to shoot it. I understand that you need permission from NAIA to kill it, I can get you that permission,” explained Natalie, hoping that the chief would agree.

“Alright, how soon can you get permission?”

“Give me twenty minutes,” Natalie walked out of the office and sat in a chair against the wall. She took out her phone and called Mary, who was able to patch her into the CEO of the company. It didn’t take much convincing and the CEO faxed the chief police a document saying they could shoot the beast. With the document signed, Natalie and the other officers set out to help track down the beast. The other policemen had been out looking for it, but there had not yet been a sighting. As they drove down one of the side roads, Natalie heard something over the radio, but she couldn’t make out what the person had said. Justin turned around.

“They found the beast. It’s running down main street.” They sped to the location, finding a herd of squad cars barricading the road. As soon as the car halted, Natalie jumped out of the car and ran towards the barricade. The sun was starting to set, and her visibility was low, but she could see the mutant standing on top of a blue car parked on the side of the road. Why haven’t they shot the freak? She thought. She went to one of the officers,

“Why haven’t you shot it yet?” she demanded, her whole body was shaking. The officer explained that they were waiting for backup to arrive to block the other end of the street before they would move in to kill the mutant. She nodded and stepped back as Justin came to talk with the officer. Natalie was surprised that the mutant hadn’t moved on before the backup arrived, it was distracted by tearing apart the car.

Main street was now fully barricaded by police cars.Visibility was incredibly low; the snow was falling harder than ever, and the wind had started to blow.

I hope that you enjoyed part 3 of NAIA! Tune in next Saturday for part 4.

-Dillfinger