Tina Chan - imperfect

The rifle clattered out of Kristi’s hands and skidded out of reach. She held her breath and tried not to gag on the rank breath wafting off the devil-dog. A giant, gooey, glob of slobber plopped onto her sternum. Tears welled up in her eyes from the burning sensation.

Kristi struggled to wiggle out from beneath the devil-dog, but the dog placed one heavy paw on her chest, stilling all movements.

“Help!” she yelped.

Naturally, her voice attracted the attention of the other devil-dog. Why am I so stupid? Of course I had to forget devil-dogs are attracted to noise!

The devil-dog pinning her to the ground stuck its face near hers. More droplets of acidic saliva splattered on Kristi’s bare skin, causing tears to flow freely and run rivets down the side of her face. The muzzle of the devil-dog rubbed against her tearstained cheeks.

Hiss.

The devil-dog jumped backwards, allowing Kristi to get back onto her feet. The fur near the nose and mouth of the devil-dog was gone, and the exposed skin appeared to be red and raw. Kristi realized her tears—which contained water—must’ve eaten away the devil-dog’s fur.

Both of the devil-dogs were more cautious now, knowing she had the potential to harm them. For once in her life, Kristi wished she would cry more tears. She wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and flicked the droplets at the devil-dogs. The dogs skittered backwards when the teardrops rained down upon them; but Kristi knew eventually they would overcome the fear of her tears. Although the droplets did indeed blister their pelts, the injuries were only superficial.

She risked a glance to see how the guard was faring with making a fire. He had managed to light the pieces of paper she had given him by rolling the paper in a torch-like fashion.

“Do you think you can distract the devil-dogs while I try to set off the smoke detector?” Kristi asked.

“Yes.” He passed the smoking bundle of paper to her and then grabbed the fallen rifle from the ground.

The sprinklers better work, Kristi thought. She held up the makeshift torch to the smoke alarm, hoping it would still detect the smoke since several of the wires were ripped. The little green light on the alarm was still blinking, so she had hope.

“Umph!” the guard grunted.

He had taken off his shoes and thrown them at the devil-dogs; his shoes were basically useless at this point as the acid had melted most of the rubber soles. The devil-dogs were momentarily distracted by the objects being chucked at their heads. However, the price for a few seconds of distraction was high. The guard had to be extra careful as to where his feet touched the ground—one step in a pool of devil-dog slobber and he was a goner.

Kristi squeaked and turned her attention back to the improvised torch she held. Her fingers were slightly singed.

“Come on,” she whispered partly to herself and partly to the smoke alarm. “Please let this work.”

There was little more than two inches of paper between the flames and her hand now. She would be forced to put out the fire soon if she didn’t want to burn herself.

THUD!

The sound of a heavy body hitting the ground made Kristi lurch in surprise.

“One down, one more to go,” the guard announced.

The dead body of the smaller devil-dog slid towards Kristi along the slippery floor. She stuck her foot out to stop the body from colliding into her. The devil-dog had been clubbed to death, from the looks of the wounds on its body.

The blank eyes of the animal stared unfocusedly back at Kristi and its large, slimy tongue drooped out from the corner of its mouth. Blood crusted its mouth along with bullet wounds. She shuddered and averted her gaze from the corpse.

THUD!

Kristi looked back towards the direction of the guard and the devil-dog, expecting to see a second dead devil-dog come sliding towards her. Instead, she saw the devil-dog slamming the guard into the ground.

The guard let out a bloodcurdling howl that was quickly cut off when the devil-dog killed him with a bite to the throat. The body of the guard lay in a limp and crooked position. The devil-dog sniffed over the guard to make sure its prey was dead then started trotting towards Kristi.

She dropped the torch and grinded out the fire with her boots (the torch wouldn’t have lasted another ten seconds anyways—there was less than half an inch of paper left to burn). Her chances of making it out of the building alive were growing slimmer by every second. She needed a miracle.

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

“Thank heavens!” she exclaimed.

The sprinklers sprang into action at last. Lifesaving water drizzled down onto the devil-dog. The devil-dog stopped in its steps, confused by the sudden change in the environment. Kristi prayed the devil-dog would retreat and leave her alone.

It didn’t.

Undeterred by the fact it was steaming water from its pelt, the devil-dog still stumbled towards Kristi, albeit its steps were shakier and slower. The nearest emergency exit was two hundred meters down the hall. There was no way she would be able to make it there before the devil-dog was on her.

Kristi fake lunged towards the left to evade the dog by dodging to the right. Too slow. The left paw of the devil-dog hooked around her legs and she tumbled to the ground.

Her head cracked against the marble floor and silvery stars exploded across her visions. I refuse for my life to end like this, Kristi thought. Oh yeah? Well, it sure seems like your life is about to end soon, a little voice whispered in the back of her mind. SHUT UP! She ignored the pessimistic voice and focused on getting her head together.

The devil-dog leaned closer, ready to tear through her throat. Her hands blindly swept the area round her. Her fingers wrapped around something small and slim. It was the tranquilizer the guard had threatened to use on Troop and her earlier. The small dart must’ve slipped out of his pockets.

The devil-dog’s teeth flashed dangerously close to Kristi’s face. With all her strength, she thrust the dart into its gaping maw. In its weakened state, the highly concentrated sedative knocked out the devil-dog within a few seconds. She barely had enough time to roll out of the way before the devil-dog dropped down cold onto the space where she had just been lying.

Kristi permitted herself a few seconds to catch her breath. Then she dusted some debris off of herself and took off running out of New Genes Lab without a second look back, leaving the pandemonium occurring in the South Wing far behind.

“Zala’s definitely going to actively pursue us now,” Chelsa said.

She hit the brakes of the Cleandows van as a stop sign loomed into view. Her driving skills were questionable when she was under pressure.

“Since Zala knows I’ve switched alliances, there’s no questioning that she’s not going to allow us off scot-free. She’ll be promoted to vice commander of the United Regions Homeland Security if she’s able to turn in the four Naturals to the current president of the Homeland Security.”

“Since when did you find out about this?” Troop asked.

“Rosa’s electro-slate,” Chelsa said. “I picked it up after she dropped it and read over some of the instafications they exchanged.”

The van lurched back into motion.

“Do you still have the slate?”

“No. I ditched it after reading through her messages. I didn’t want to risk bringing her slate with us in case it had a tracker in it.

“Do you think the release of the devil-dogs was Finn’s doing?” Kristi asked.

“If it was, he has a lot of questions to answer,” Chelsa said. “He could’ve killed us all.”