Apocalypse Fighter

Chapter 67: Brain Attack

       Richard embraced his wife and son, and then he led them towards the stairs.

       “Wait!” shouted Elmer. He set Nancy on the floor and said, “Don’t you want the mouse king?” He had begun to feel the danger as keenly as Richard did, and it was a struggle for him to hold his urine. The mouse in his hand no longer felt like a tiny rodent. It was radiating heat like crazy, and, suddenly, it felt like he was holding a bomb.

“I thought you liked the mouse,” Richard said without looking back. “You can keep it along with the food. Good luck!” The danger was building up quickly, and Richard wanted to get his family as far away from Ground Zero as quickly as possible.

“What’s going on?” Marry cried. She knew nothing about the mouse king, and she was afraid. 

“Elmer irritated the mouse king,” Richard replied. “Now he is planning his revenge!”

“You can’t leave me!” Elmer shouted. “There are mice everywhere.” He didn’t understand why Richard was behaving the way that he was. “You won’t last five minutes out there! And even if you do, you’ll starve to death!” 

       Richard was halfway up the stairs when he heard a repetitive clicking sound. It came from inside his head, and he knew instantly, not just that it had come from the mouse king, but that they were all hearing it. He turned back and was shocked to see that the blue aura that surrounded the mouse was expanding. Its gearing up for a Brain Attack! – he realized. Never in a million years would he have thought that such a small creature could summon enough energy to release a Brain attack.

Richard was familiar with the Brain Attack from his last life. A mutant could use it to interfere with thought patterns and take over control of bodies. It had been an exceedingly rare talent, and anyone that had it was nearly invincible. 

Richard realized then that all kings must have this skill, and he could not believe he had not thought of it sooner. He looked at the people around him and saw that they were all in thrall to the mouse, and he began to panic. He heard the clicking still, but it did not affect him because he had The Eternal Bug.

What should I do? – thought Richard - Damn it! I should have figured this out earlier. If I had, maybe I could have stopped it… I was so focused on saving Mary and Steven that I ignored my enemy’s talents. He knew that he had failed them, but he was steadfast in his decision to not give up. His family had put their trust in him, and he had sworn that he would protect them. Thus, if there was a way out, he was determined to find it.

Richard took a step towards the mouse king, and when it realized that he could resist the Brain Attack, he let go of the others so that it could focus on him. Richard felt the attack intensify, but The Eternal Bug dealt with it easily.

Suddenly, Elmer clenched the mouse king in his fist and ran to the door. He shouted, “So much food! Mine! Mine! You i***t! There is so much food in the basement. And you think that you’ll make it on the outside?” 

Damn it! – thought Richard - Elmer cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I have no choice.”

Elmer froze when he saw Richard draw his knife. “No!” he shrieked.

Richard threw the blade, and it flew true, planting itself to the hilt in Elmer’s chest. The hit was so clean that there was no blood splatter. “Poor bastard,” Richard muttered. “He probably didn’t even understand why he had to die.”

Elmer’s body collapsed and he was dead before he hit the ground. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and blood oozed out of his mouth. 

The mouse king scurried down from Elmer’s hand and over to Richard. It looked up to him defiantly. It seemed that the rodent was surprised by what he had done and was thinking over his options.

  As for Richard, he could barely think straight, and he was on the brink of passing out. It had taken a lot of energy to combat the Brain Attack, and he knew that if he did not find a way to replenish his energy, he would die. But in his daze, he nearly forgot about the energy cores in his pocket. Once he remembered, he retrieved one, put it in his mouth, and swallowed.

Almost immediately, Richard began to feel stronger.

The minute the mouse king saw the energy core, though, it began to scream and twist about. Richard was stunned for a minute, but then he recalled that all mutants were drawn to energy cores. Thus, it was only natural for the mouse king to be upset. 

Suddenly, Nancy grabbed Richard’s knife and pulled it out of Elmer’s chest. Then she turned to Richard and said, “I am going to kill you, you stupid mother fucker!”

Richard gasped. He had never heard a ten-year-old use this kind of language, but then he realized that the mouse king was controlling her. The little girl charged him with the knife raised above her head, and he threw her away with enough force to knock her out but not kill her. He understood that she was not herself, and he did not think that she deserved to die. 

Sarah ran over to the girl and cradled her in her lap. Tears were streaming down her face, and she was wailing. Richard tried to tell her to pick the girl up and follow them, but she was beyond the point where she could listen and understand what he was saying. After everything that had happened, she had gone mad. 

There was nothing else to do, but to keep moving forward. Before the mouse could form a new plan, Richard led Marry, Steven, and Tommy up the stairs. When they got out to the main landing, he heard Nancy shriek, and he turned back one last time. The mice had swarmed over the bodies of Sarah and Nancy. They would be dead in a matter of minutes.  

Richard’s heart ached for them, but he knew better than to grieve for them. There was no time. The mouse king was hot on his heels, and he had an army of red-eyed demons at his back.

From outside, Richard heard people shouting and he followed the sound. When he passed through the door, the first face he recognized was Anthony’s. “Anthony!” he shouted. “Use the bombs and use the smokes!”

When Anthony saw them, he was elated. “Got it!” he shouted. Just keep running! We will save you!” Anthony threw four bombs at the oncoming mice and waited excitedly for them to explode.