Project Human

by Sean McKenzie

go!” he screamed at her.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

  “Move, now!” Barton yanked her arm, but she latched onto the table.

  “No!”

  “We don’t have much time! Move!” Barton was frantic.

  Adelle was crying. The arm held by Barton was thrashing. “You promised me Darryl! You said you’d give him to me! I trusted you! I trusted you!”

  Barton controlled his anger. He didn’t have time for games. “They’ll be coming now. If you don’t come with me, you’ll die. We don’t have time for him.”

  “He’s my husband!” Adelle cried hard. “I’d rather die with him than here by you!”

  Husband.

  The word hung in the chaos of his thoughts, neutralizing the havoc. The word was human. The word was real. It was something that he had not heard since arriving. There was a connection with the word and life itself. There was a bond. The side of him that was human could not ignore it. He clung to the feeling it released inside him, even though the alien inside him worked hard to erase it.

  Husband.

  Adelle felt Barton’s grasp go limp. She yanked her arm out of his hand. The lines of anger masking his face seemed to drift like sand swept by the tide. “I’m not going anywhere without Darryl.”

  Barton saw something in Adelle’s eyes. It was unlocking doors inside him. It was a fiery passion. It wasn’t like the rest of the dead eyes he’d seen. She would fight him, and he needed her to trust him. She was the key; she was the antidote.

  He nodded. “I will take you to him. But you have to do everything I say. You have to trust me.”

  Adelle hesitated. “How can I trust you?”

  Barton’s eyes were bitter and he struggled to spit out his words, as if he didn’t believe them. “Because I was once like you.”

  “You’re nothing like me.” Her head shook in disgust. “I heard them talking. I know what you are. You’re an alien.”

  Barton said nothing. His silence fueled Adelle’s fire.

  “I remember everything now. Don’t touch me. I can’t trust you. You’re an alien!”

  “They are the aliens! We are the only humans left, Adelle!” Barton screamed. Veins protruded out of his forehead. “Look at him! Look at his blood! Black!”

  Adelle stared to the dead guard on the floor as Barton pointed. She saw it. It wasn’t the dim light. It was black; it wasn’t human.

  “My God.”

  “Remember, Adelle. Think back. You know how you came here.”

  Adelle was stunned. She stared at Barton’s eyes and didn’t see the cruelty or malice that was always present. She had no idea what to think.

  “They changed me, like they tried to change you.” Barton continued. His voice was calm yet firm. “And right now, you’re the only hope I have left.”

  Adelle stared into his eyes for a few seconds. He was telling her the truth. “Oh my God. What happened to you?”

  “The same thing that will happen to you if we don’t get out of here.”

  Barton heard them coming; footsteps echoed through the hall. “Now!” He grabbed Adelle’s arm again and ran to the door. Adelle didn’t put up a fight.

  When they stepped into the hall, they ran into four guards. Barton shoved Adelle aside as they all hit the floor in a tangled mess.

  Darryl ran hard through the dark hall. It hurt to move; it hurt to breathe. But he pressed on despite his complications with only one goal in mind: Adelle.

  Keep going. You can do it. Faster. Don’t think about the pain. Think about her. Her face. Her eyes smiling when we free her. Keep going now. Almost there. She’s waiting.

  Four guards had opened the cell door moments ago and Darryl had scrambled out. He was on his feet instantly, running to save Adelle before they could stop him. Disoriented, he ran aimlessly.

  He reached a set of stairs and slumped onto them, crawling up. Light shined in from the window on the door waiting at the summit.

  Almost there. Don’t give in now. She needs you.

  His arms were too weak to pull himself up, too sore even to bend then straighten again. Exhausted, his body slumped hard, flat against the steps. The door stood waiting just a few feet ahead.

  “Help!”

  Darryl’s voice creaked, failing in his attempt. His hands balled into fists; his face wrinkled with anger. He blinked hard; his eyes didn’t open again.

  Darryl was out before the door burst open and light bathed his body.

  Darryl pulled himself away from the dash. His forehead was bruised, his face speckled with shards of glass. Light spilled in through the windows all at once. He slumped back into his seat and discovered motion to his right. The passenger door was open; someone was being pulled out. But he couldn’t be certain what was happening. It all happened in a blur.

  “Help.”

  Darryl tried to call again and couldn’t. He struggled to see what was happening out the door to his right, but the light was too intense to decipher anything but quick movements. People were there, he knew. Someone was barking orders.

  Paramedics. Thank God.

  The door to his left suddenly jerked open and hands were reaching, grabbing him by the shirt, pulling him out of the busted vehicle.

  Darryl’s eyes flashed open. He was on his back being pushed down the hall. A person walked at both his sides. Bright lights lined the ceiling. Voices were heard in passing. The dream had faded to reality.

  He was in the hospital. Somehow they had found him on the steps. But now he was safe. Adelle would be found too.

  He closed his eyes then, thinking how familiar it all was.

  Darryl’s eyes shot open immediately. He remembered his conversations with the lunatic in the cell. They took you, is what he said. It had been no accident.

  “Where’s the others?” Darryl asked. “There were others with me. Where are they?”

  No answer.

  He had fled the cage so fast that he never thought about any of them. He wasn’t sure they even left with him. He ran alone through the hall. He was alone now. And the guards all ran off to find Barton. Had they returned?

  “Where’s Adelle? Did they find her?”

  Nothing.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  The nurse at his left side stared down at him. The look the woman gave made Darryl uncomfortable. She said nothing.

  A cold chill laced Darryl’s pale skin. He was suddenly afraid.

  Adelle ran a step behind Barton. She looked back once, putting to rest the eerie feeling that one of the dead was somehow following. But she saw the guards on the floor where Barton had left them, broken in ways that would not heal, and knew for the moment that they were safe.

  Barton stopped running as they reached the cell. The door stood ajar, the bodies inside lay unmoving, groaning. He checked each one, but didn’t have to. He knew Darryl was gone.

  “What is this?” Adelle asked. “What’s happened to them?”

  “Patients. Subject to trial and error. As good as dead.”

  “Well do something for them!” Adelle couldn’t look at them in such agony.

  “Their bodies had failed the treatments, Adelle.” Barton growled. “They’re in limbo.”

  Barton walked out of the cell. Adelle looked away.

  “Where is he?” Adelle asked. The smell gagged her.

  “They have him.”

  “Where?” Adelle was becoming hysterical. She felt a deep sense of urgency. Time, she knew, was slipping fast. “We have to find him.”

  “He’s gone, and we don’t know where to!”

  “I’m not leaving without him!”

  “Sh! Keep your voice down. You’ll get us both killed.” Barton shook his head. Finding Darryl was a risk. All he needed was some of her blood, and then a safe place to change himself.

  He was beginning to think that having her around was too risky. He should take her blood and be done with her. Let her find her own fate.

  But as he stared at the fire in
her eyes, he knew she would become captured on her own. Without him, she was as good as dead. Then they would win.

  He wasn’t about to let them.

  “Look,” he whispered, “we’ll find him. But first we need to save ourselves. If we get captured, then we’re no help to him.”

  Adelle thought for a moment. He was right. “I’m trusting you.”

  Barton nodded. “At the end of the hall, there’s a door. Follow me.”

  Without waiting, Barton raced away through the hall into the darkness.

  F I F T E E N

  The room was well lit. Heavy breathing and barking orders filled the air, while thudding footsteps filled the hall just beyond. Guards were searching every room and corridor. They were close to their quarry; they could smell them.

  Doctor Barton sat crunched inside of the ventilation shaft within the room’s ceiling, sweating and furious. Adelle sat across from him, her legs facing his, her thoughts nearly as dark as their encampment. It was hot and stuffy; the small ventilation openings did little to ease their discomfort. But as soon as they had entered in the room Barton thought would keep them safe, guards began to appear in the hall by the dozens, searching everywhere, and they had no other place to hide.

  Sweat dripped down Barton’s face, his arms wrapped around his knees, pulled in close to his chest. Adelle had taken the same form as they sat in silence, listening closely to the noises below, hearing most of what the guards were conversing.

  For several long minutes the room beneath them was searched. Things that Barton had hid were found; small tools, meaningless to the guards but vital for Barton’s work, were confiscated. The room was ransacked. Drawers and doors were broke off hinges. Papers with written formulas littered the floor. The guards knew that they